Each day this week, promises to be a hectic 2019. Look who’s back:

Ma’a Nonu is, to borrow from the great Winston Churchill, a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

One of the finest All Black midfielders of all time, the power-packed, dreadlocked, game-changer always seemed to save his best for the black jersey he cherished so highly. He played 103 tests between 2003 and 2015 and over the last eight of those seasons formed arguably the finest centre pairing in history with the equally outstanding Conrad Smith.

For a long, long time Sonny Bill Williams couldn’t get a starting spot when probably at the peak of his powers, that’s how good Nonu was. For the All Blacks.

But even back then – remember his last season as an All Black was three full years ago – he failed momentously to reproduce that same form in the Super Rugby arena.

In his younger days, playing alongside his mentor, Tana Umaga, and in a Rolls-Royce backline that at times purred with perfection, Nonu was a brilliant player for the Hurricanes. But in the latter part of his time in Wellington and then in ill-fated, notably short stints with the Blues (twice), Highlanders and finally the Canes again, he was never able to recreate his All Blacks form with his Super Rugby sides.

What’s more Nonu became an ill fit with his franchises over the back half of his career and, not coincidentally, was part of under-performing sides. There were fleeting moments where his class shone through, but it always seemed as though Nonu was going through the motions at Super Rugby time and saving his best for the test arena.

There can be no doubt it was a formula that worked for him, as right up until that back-to-back World Cup triumph in 2015 he was one of the very best of a special era of All Blacks. He had a step and a half, the power of a tank, a tremendous flat, probing pass and over the latter stages of his career even developed a world-class chip-kick game.

With the classy Smith